[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Bryan Williams wrote:
> > While this may be a hoax, that there are some
> > government agencies that are studying the issue is not a hoax.
>
> I disagree: while they may try to tax, for example, purchases made over
> the web, e-mail surcharges would be
>
> a) an amazingly spectacular way to kill one's political career, and
> b) impossible to enforce without amazing intrusion of privacy.
>
> And even if they decided to intrude on privacy, it would be... be...
> well, for those of you who truly understand POP and HTTP and SMTP and
> TCP/IP and UUCP and so on, you can only imagine how difficult it would be
> to set up the e-mail equivilent of, say, a water meter. And how much joy
> the Open Source community would take in subverting same. It just ain't
> gonna happen.
These reasons have never stopped the government before.
The USPS has laid claim to many things, including "mail" openings in our
own homes. The infrastructure to support an email surcharge would suit
the needs of the FBI's carnivore program very well. If the open source
community "subverted" this, we would all become criminals.
Microsoft, among others, would love that.
Bob Sparks
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